[rayiner]

Florida ranks in the middle of U.S. states for homicides and does substantially better than the median for suicides.

The reputation of Florida comes from having a very broad public records law that requires publication of numerous details of police reports that in other states is kept confidential. That means that sensational stories are much more likely to make it into the news: https://digitalcommons.wcl.american.edu/facsch_lawrev/2117/

[kortilla]

Uh, that link says exactly the opposite:

>The problem with this theory is that it incorrectly implies that Florida's Public Records Law offers journalists advantages in writing stories that other states' laws do not. Despite the broad grant of access to police documents that Florida'sopen records law provides, other states' open records laws similarly provide the public with access to arrest records, incident reports, and, although to a lesser extent, mugshots. Other provisions of Florida'sPublic Records Law that contribute to the ease of access to Florida'spublic records compared with other states equivalent laws are largely irrelevant to FloridaMan's existence. Even coupled with the characteristics of Floridaandits residents that many people claim are unique, the open records law-based theory for Florida Man's existence falls short of explaining the phenomenon.

[Lerc]

That is most interesting. It's the same principle to why people consider Wikipedia to be unreliable. Letting people see the issues in one place creates a perception that they don't exist in places where you can't see them.

[canjobear]

I have multiple friends now who used to quote me that factoid, then went to Florida and came back convinced that no, Florida man is real.